March 28, 2011

[The first session examines] the Dylan songs "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" and "Hurricane." "Hurricane" chronicles the true-life plight of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was found guilty of murdering three people in 1966. His conviction was overturned after Dylan's song was released because of faulty evidence. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is about the 1960s murder of a black barmaid in Baltimore at the hands of wealthy white man, who spent a mere six months in jail for the crime.

[The second session] will primarily consist of academics and judges presenting papers on Dylan and the law. For example Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner David Zornow will present "Dylan's Judgment on Judges: Are Power, Greed and Corruptible Seed All That There Is?" University of Kentucky College of Law professor Alison Connelly will present "Dylan as the Complete Trial Lawyer: Using Hurricane Carter to Teach Trial Skills."...

I agree with Crack, but hasten to add that almost none of what ends up in law reviews turns out to be at all useful, even to attorneys. Maybe to professors, but only to add to the vast stores of unread law review articles.

Almost like the Circle Game, except that was Joni Mitchell, not Dylan.

Academia is starting to ride Dylan's genius reputation. Then after building him up for 50 years, academia will debunk its own myths and discover that he was just another man. I still think he is a latter day Hebrew Prophet. Mere men don't write words like Dylan writes them.

Dylan was writing a corrido. I never expected his song to be evidence in court. It's just a heck of a song with his old protest fervor in it, and I doubt that the courts gave it much weight.

All of which reminds me somehow: Have you watched the program "Justified" on the FX cable and satellite channel. It's on Wednesday nights and repeats on the weekends. It's about a deputy U. S. Marshall in Harlan County, Kentucky and has some of the best, albeit adult, writing on television. It's based on a story or book, not sure, by Elmore Leonard. And the line between law and crime seems to somewhat waivering and smudged.

Your mention of Dylan reminded me of it. There's a federal judge portrayed by Stephen Root who hires hookers to give him bjs and wears red satin panties. That's just the beginning of his disregard for what anybody else thinks.

It reminds me a lot of how the real world disillusioned me when I started practicing law. It was the realization that there was a whole layer of low-life society that I had never really known much about and had only associated with tv. It was like turning over a rock.

Shiloh, are you familiar with the account in Genesis of the binding of Isaac?

There's no indication that Bobby Zimmerman had a strained relationship with his father. On the contrary, Abe seems to have been a bit of a doting father. Though Bob left Hibbing after high school, he returned for his father's funeral. Abe's grave near Duluth, where the Zimmerman family is buried, is well maintained and is visited by family members.

Brian Adams, the Canadian singer, is HUGE in India. So is cricket, Bollywood and really thin people. My husband said they were thin because they were poor. Why are poor Americans not so thin?

A big "caste system" in India which I thought was not very nice but got used to.

The economy is booming in India. Too many jobs and not enough applicants. The food though..forget the meat.

Next on the travel plans was Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, China, Singapore and Bangladesh which is India's Mexico.

I saw some middle age women from America in Calcutta on a "Eat, Pray, Love" tour and yes they were wearing traditional Indian dress-very sad.

Did the Toy Train up to Darjeeling through the mountains, very beautiful.

Went to Australia for Mardi Gras. It was nice but I was over it.

I am totally married. I didn't realize how rich my husband was until I traveled to India. Not that I cared one way or another but it is nice. He has a driver and cook and maid and someone who does his gardens-kind of like Karen Walker.

Back in Wisconsin (for a month) Miss Althouse-ready for dindin?

Next my husband and I are heading to UK and Mexico. I am getting used to this life. I thought I would hate all the flights but international air travel is not bad especially in first class.

Boots of Spanish Leather is the Norton Anthology of Poetry, and I include it in my sophomore survey poetry, in the ballads unit. I link to both Dylan and Nanci Griffith's performances. Just because I love them both.

A ballad in a poetry class is just where it ought to be. But I don't see how a song would be particularly useful in a law conference in terms of law, or as evidence in a murder case. Have law conferences become about pop culture?

The worst part of this is that Fordham is rubbing salt in the wounds of the victims and their families again.

Fordham isn't that far away from where the murders took place.

I know Jersey well. The families of the victims, not to mention the good law enforcement officers slandered by Dylan, have taken a hell of a beating over this.

It doesn't surprise me that Fordham would debase itself by dragging the families through this again. It's a Jesuit school. Beating up on whites with generalized racial guilt is just a damned stupid thing that the Jesuits can't stop doing.

Forgetting the absuridty of a conference on a songwriter's thoughts on law (roughly the equivalent of Clarence Darrow being elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), what's interesting is that the two key songs, "Hurricane" and "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol", are both totally factually wrong.

Ruben Carter got away with triple murder. And, William Zanzinger, while a scumbag, was not a murderer. He whacked a black woman with a toy cane while drunk, and she died a day later of pre-existing health conditions. He's an absolute coward, and should go to jail for hitting a defenseless woman, but a murderer he is not.

Fordham's statement that:

"The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" is about the 1960s murder of a black barmaid in Baltimore at the hands of wealthy white man, who spent a mere six months in jail for the crime"'

is just an out and out lie. Zanzinger was neither tried for nor convicted of murder. Its just Fordham lying, no doubt because the purported facts (a white guy getting away with the "murder" of a black woman) fits their narrative of America as an irredemably racist place.

Dylan is in fact a very dishonest songwriter. He has a tendency to glamorize and whitewash vicious criminals, such as Joey Gallo ("Joey"), Ruben Carter ("Hurricane") and Pretty Boy Floyd (a Woody Guthrie song, but Dylan has performed it), while slandering people like Zanzinger.

Beth, really??? You include Dylan's pale imitation of a traditional ballad, just because it's in Norton, when you could use something new and genuinely Dylan-esque instead, like... oh, I don't know... maybe... Tangle Up In Blue? :-)

Anonymous...When whacking people with canes you have to take them like you find them. That is negligence law 101, and it applies more forcefully to intentional acts. Bob was pointing out that the system here worked overtime to protect Zantzinger from the consequences of causing a death. You and the Court found that poor Mr Zantzinger was the victim of an unkown defect in Hattie Carroll. But his whacking her with a cane was at the very least manslaughter.